Roll For Your Life

Over 100 backers and well on our way to $10,000 dollars!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jun 08, 2023 at 10:32:06 AM

The word is getting out and we are so happy Roll For Your Life is spreading!

I thought I'd share a little more background about Roll For Your Life, our process making it and why it means so much to us:

Roll For Your Life was born out of a desire to create an approachable system that would help guide creative thinking. Something perfect for quick group or individual play with this as the ultimate goal: create characters and discover stories through guided chaos. An activity we could jump into without too much investment while still scratching the same creative itch that tabletop RPG character creation does.

Roll For Your Life didn’t have a name for many years. It was just a game we played casually on long drives, rainy days, and while we watched our favorite movies. It was played mostly for laughs, putting a few categories together that would capture the essence of an archetype. The randomness of the dice always had a way of bringing out the funnier side of building a character and we strived for absurdity: “My pirate has 6 parrots, two peg legs and a boat pulled by manatees?”  We often drew the resulting characters, marveling at the “exquisite corpse” like jumble of attributes. The more we tinkered and considered the outcomes the more we discovered that this had real potential for storytelling: serious or silly, it could be leveraged to free the mind of the previous hang-ups and jumpstart creativity. And while we moved away from it being simply a numerical gag, some of that innate humor remains, and we’re glad it’s there.

So what started out as a pastime between friends eventually grew into the Roll for Your Life we have now. A love letter to genre conventions: a simultaneous celebration and deconstruction of the big archetypes and tropes of page and screen. We all know in broad strokes what a Wizard is like, or a Noir Detective, or a Dragon. But we want to let the dice roll out of the conventional boundaries, to tear apart and rebuild these beloved stock characters, to twist them in surprising ways.

I’ve attached a few “behind the scenes” photos showing our journey until this point below. Photos of us kicking around ideas, scraps of paper with notes, some early sketches by Conor, our demo at Orca Con and our doggie mascot Willa!

Thanks again for all of your support so far. We can do this!

--Dakota

We’ve passed $5,000!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 12:41:53 PM

Hi everyone,  

Hooray! We’ve passed $5,000 in a little over 5 days. That’s huge but there’s still more work to do.   

We are working diligently to spread the word to make sure Roll For Your Life reaches its goal but we could use your help! 

If you feel passionate about this project (or just want to make sure you get those killer custom dice you ordered) then please consider:

• Sharing this campaign on your socials!
• Sharing with your friends and family!
• Or simply shout “I love Roll For Your Life!” from the highest point in town! 

(Please don’t climb too high though, ‘cause honestly I’m not good with heights)   

With all that said, your support means so much already and we appreciate you just showing up in the first place!   

Thanks!   

--Dakota

First day and first review!
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 30, 2023 at 12:00:17 PM

Hello everyone,  

What an exciting first day! Thank you so much for your support so far. It means the world to us to see each name backing our project and bringing it to life. We could not do it without your help.   

In other news, we got our first review from Ian Howard at Meeple Mountain! Here’s a link: https://www.meeplemountain.com/reviews/roll-for-your-life/

Sharing our project with game lovers, tabletop roleplayers and people new to the hobby has been really rewarding and Ian captures the essence of the Roll For Your Life experience quite clearly.   

--Dakota